This is the first in a series of blog posts to document a three day recording session by the great Bennie Maupin Quartet in Warsaw, Poland, September 20-22, 2007. This recording, tentatively called Vital Signs, will be released on Cryptogramophone Records in Spring, 2008. Bennie arrived in Poland a week ago for concerts with his quartet in Zakopane, Poland. The members of his quartet are Michal Tokaj - piano, Michal Baransky - bass, and Lukaz Zyta - drums. Bennie has been working with these top-notch players for several years, and they are very much in demand in Poland. Bennie specifically wanted to record with these musicians because of the musical rapport he feels with them.
The recording sessions are taking place at a wonderful studio in Warsaw called Sound and More. This studio was designed by the Swedish acoustician and studio designer Ingemar Ohlsson of Audio Data Lab, and is very well suited to the needs of this recording. There are 4 rooms for tracking, 2 main rooms for piano and woodwinds, a medium sized drum room, and a smaller iso booth for the bass. We've rented the best piano in Poland, a 9' Hamburg Steinway Grand. One interesting feature of this studio is the movable wall that divides the two main rooms. The console is an old Neve board originally from Sony studios in Hollywood, and the microphone selection here is very impressive. The recording engineer is Sebastian Witkowski, and he has done a great job of micing and balancing the instruments. All is set to make a great sounding recording. It's really an honor to be in Poland with these great musicians, and to be associated with this project. Come back later for more updates! - Jeff Gauthier
